ronito said:
Man, every time I've talked to a Mccain supporter since the tide turned towards Obama I lose a lot of faith in America. I can certainly understand if you disagree with Obama. But that's never the case with these people. Honestly in a single conversation it went from Obama is the anti-christ, to Obama's a muslim terrrist, to Obama wants to get revenge on the white people. Honestly these people are besides themselves with racist fear. I know there are some out there that disagree with Obama for actual reasons outside of xenophobia or misinformation...but I haven't run across one for days.
It's amazing to me how much elections are about identity these days. Maybe it's always been this way, but I don't remember feeling this kind of divide in 92 or 96.
Bush was so successful because he gave people this easygoing cowboy identity of supportin' our troops and nucular and all that to latch on to. When you put a Bush sign in your yard it said something about the kind of person you were, and a lot of Americans valued that kind of person.
McCain is just not personable. "Maverick" never caught on. I do remember a sign in some hick's yard saying "I'm a mavrik are you" or something; the campaign may have been hoping that attitude would catch on nationwide, but they probably should have picked a word more everyday Americans would be able to both spell AND define.
So they got Sarah Palin. It's why the Pit Bull thing got so much traction; it was a spat over identity. Voters were expected to identify with who Sarah Palin IS, not what she thinks or does, and for a while they did. She was a middle class hockey mom just like you and me from Wasilla Main Street, and doncha know she talks just like those old Gene Kelly movies I used to watch when I was home sick from school.
But her identity politics took a hit when it was revealed that part of who she is is Stupid. Not Dumb, like Bush, but like, Stupid. A friend of mine says "Bone stupid." My friend's dad says "dumb as a stump."
So now the McCain campaign has tried to undermine Obama's identity. "Who is Barack Obama?" Everyone in America knows that the answer is "a black guy," and knows that the McCain campaign knows that the answer is "a black guy."
So now they are high and dry. When you put a McCain sign on your lawn, you are assuming the identity of a racist. Not of a down home country fella who thinks Bush oughta do right by our country, not a fiscal conservative standing up to special interests. A fucking racist.
There are fewer people out there interested in admitting to being for McCain.
